---
title: Second-chance hiring, explained
description: Second-chance hiring — hiring people with criminal records — is a growing trend across several industries.
---

[Hustle News ](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news)

# [Second-chance hiring, explained](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/10122022-second-chance-hiring)

 Written by [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) | Oct 12, 2022 5:56:08 AM

Second-chance hiring is when companies hire people who were formerly incarcerated.

It’s picking up across several industries, [per](https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-businesses-want-to-hire-people-with-criminal-records-amid-tight-job-market-11665173965?mod=hp_lead_pos11) *The Wall Street Journal*, due in part to:

- A national labor shortage
- Groups like the Second Chance Business Coalition, which consists of 40+ companies committed to the practice, including American Airlines, Target, and Microsoft.

**Why it matters**

There are 70m+ Americans with arrest or conviction records, and ~600k people are released from prison each year.

Finding a stable job can [reduce recidivism](https://www.brookings.edu/research/a-better-path-forward-for-criminal-justice-training-and-employment-for-correctional-populations/), but there are often significant barriers.

- More than [90%](https://www.npr.org/2012/05/21/153201730/how-much-can-potential-employers-ask-about-you) of employers conduct background checks. A criminal record can reduce chances of a second interview by [50%](https://twitter.com/SecondChanceBiz/status/1484171131984695299).
- A 2018 [analysis](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html) found that the unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated people was over 27%.

A 2014 report [estimated](https://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/employment-prisoners-felonies-2016-06.pdf) 1.7m-1.9m people were excluded from the workforce due to these barriers, costing the US **$78B-$87B** in annual GDP.

**Second-chance hiring results are positive**

A 2021 Society for Human Resource Management report [found](https://www.gettingtalentbacktowork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-GTBTW_Report.pdf) that 85% of HR pros felt that employees with criminal records performed the same or better than those without.

They also have lower [turnover rates](https://secondchancebusinesscoalition.org/why-it-matters), which in turn saves companies money.

**BTW: **Last week, we wrote about remote work [increasing opportunities](https://thehustle.co/10062022-wfh/) for people with disabilities.

[View full post](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/10122022-second-chance-hiring)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Juliet Bennett Rylah"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T19:47:25.930Z",
  "datePublished" : "2022-10-12T05:56:08Z",
  "headline" : "Second-chance hiring, explained",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 628,
    "url" : "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1353610500-HS-News-Brief_2022-10-11T225300.812Z.webp",
    "width" : 1200
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/10122022-second-chance-hiring",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Hustle News"
  }
}
```